stars, sex and nudity buzz : 12/27/2012

“Banshee” on Cinemax is a new action drama series following the world of crime and corruption stewing under the seemingly idyllic surface of rural Pennsylvania Amish town Banshee.“I spent 15 years picturing this day, and I got to tell you, this is not how I saw it playing out,” Lucas Hood (Antony Starr) tells his ex-lover — understating things just a little bit — in the new Cinemax action dramaBanshee, premiering Friday, Jan. 11, at 10pm ET/PT.

Immediately upon his release from state prison, Lucas has a busy day that would tucker out any ex-con. He hits a bar, steals a car, gets in a chase and shootout in Manhattan, boosts a motorcycle, stalks his ex-lover in a rural Pennsylvania Dutch town, and kills two guys in a bar fight. Oh, and by nightfall, he’s the town’s sheriff.The premise of the show — executive produced by Alan Ball (Six Feet Under, True Blood) — may seem a little preposterous and over-the-top, but that’s what makes it incredibly engrossing and a lot of fun. Like its Cinemax series brethren Strike Back and Hunted, Banshee is a serious drama that smartly doesn’t take itself too seriously. “You have to buy into the heightened reality of the show,” Starr says. “One of the great things about the show is that when we have very serious moments, that we have just a pinch of something else, a pinch of color, just to remind us that it’s not real. We are existing in this heightened universe.”The Banshee universeis a surreal, sleazy stew of ex-cons, techie drag queens, politicians, corrupt businessmen, drug dealers, Ukrainian gangsters, rebellious teenagers and local yokels — all with their own secrets and agendas. And yes, there are Amish.

“You can’t turn the corner at the moment without seeing something about Amish,” Starr says. “They’re so hot right now. It’s amazing. Every time I turn on the TV, there’s another reality show about Amish.” (Irony!) But Banshee isn’t just jumping on the trend buggy. The Amish country backdrop adds rich layers to the story. “There are a lot of bad people in the town of Banshee, and having this idyllic Pennsylvania, sort of pristine ideas that run along with the Amish ideology, is a backdrop for the criminal enterprises that are going on, the bad people that are around,” Star says. “It’s a stark contrast for the world. It really creates a landscape where there’s true good and true evil and they’re really polarized next to each other.”

The Amish would definitely shun Banshee for all the sex scenes (it’s Cinemax, after all). Ivana Milicevic (Casino Royale), plays Carrie, Lucas’ past partner in crime and in bed who has reinvented herself as a wife and mother while hiding from the gangsters she and Lucas betrayed years ago. Milicevic, a former model and Bond girl, has plenty of steamy screen time in Banshee. “As for sex scenes, I’m sure everyone you’ve ever asked always tells you the same thing: They are awkward and ridiculous,” she says. “Everything about them is embarrassing and a funny story. Although, the cool thing was is that we really wanted the sex scenes to kind of be natural and real. I really wanted them to be like, ‘If we’re going to do them, let’s kind of do it.’ I mean not do it do it, but I wanted it to be natural,” she says. “It’s just the whole thing is really funny. And it’s got nothing to do with sexiness or anything. You just kind of do it. And the cast and crew were all so close, it was pretty comfortable considering how awkward the whole thing is. And then you just kind of get used to it.”+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

GIUSY BUSCEMI Miss Italia 2012

The Grierson and Leitch Worst Movies Of 2012

by Tim Grierson and Will Leitch

It's the final week of 2012, so we're wrapping the year up the way movie people are supposed to wrap the year up: Lists! Today, we each give our five worst movies of 2012. Tomorrow, we count down each of our No. 6-10 best movies of the year, and Friday, we finish off with each of our top five. It's important to remember that all worst-movies-of-the-year lists are inherently fraudulent. There are surely movies made this year that were worse than the five each of us chose. We just didn't see them. We imagine any accurate list of the five "worst" movies of any year would have to contain 80 percent porn, 20 percent Tyler Perry, and ours don't. But worst-movie lists like ours are less "worst movie" and more "movies we saw that we've decided to pick on." That said, we tried to be fair and single out the five 2012 movies that we legitimately think were the worst. It's the least we could do.

Leitch

About Cherry. This was a tiny movie that made only $3,000 in three theaters: It might seem like I'm picking on poor little About Cherry. But then again, you haven't seen it. A supposed art-movie-about-porn that feels more like a pervy director playing Drunk Paul Thomas Anderson, About Cherry is stilted, awkward and stupid throughout. For a while you think it's trying to somehow send up or subvert all its clichés until you realize, nope—it doesn't even realize it's a cliché. It features a pretty-obviously-stoned performance from James Franco and a role for Slumdog Millionaire's Dev Patel that's so embarrassing I assumed the director just disliked him. A movie you want to throw across the room.

The Paperboy. I know this is one of those movies that's supposed to be so-campy-bad-it's-good, but I'm afraid it never quite rises below vulgarity, as Mel Brooks might say. The cast is game, maybe a little too much so—this is not a movie that Nicole Kidman, John Cusack or Matthew McConaughey will be featuring on their career retrospective reels. (Unless Kidman and Cusack want to focus their montages on bikini urination and prison-suit ejaculation, respectively.) Director Lee Daniels is a goddamned lunatic, which is fine, but also incompetent at constructing a basic dialogue scene, which isn't. This makes me feel pretty dumb for initially admiring Precious so much. (Original review here.)Red Dawn. Sure, the original film is pretty terrible; it's not like they were working with the sacred script here. But this remake isn't just pointless, it's gutless. At least the lousy first film had the courage of its far-right, anti-Commie convictions. This one makes the bad guys North Koreans so it can still sell in China, not that anyone in China would be stupid enough to watch this movie. Its lack of politics or viewpoint or intestinal fortitude could be slightly forgiven if it weren't also so limp as an action movie. Most of it is incoherently shot and about as stirring as a home video directed by a lesser Hanson brother. The cast of kids looks unaware of what's going on around them, something that's only their good fortune.

Ted. I'm not going to pile on further here. Read this, and read this. I can't make it clearer than that.

2016: Obama's America. Less a political polemic than a bizarre vanity project put together by a strange little man, 2016: Obama's America makes a case against President Obama that only Lionel Hutz could love. Dinesh D'Souza knows less about filmmaking than he does about logical argumentation, and that's really saying something. As I put it in my initial review, " I am not sure D'Souza has a future in movies, in front of or behind the camera. (Maybe next to it? He might be all right next to it.)"

Grierson

Bachelorette. Any movie that brings together Kirsten Dunst, Isla Fisher, James Marsden, Rebel Wilson and Adam Scott ought to be a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the movie they did star in was this obnoxious wedding comedy about a bunch of bitchy bridesmaids whose bad behavior—they do drugs!—is constantly held up as empowering and daring. Really, it's manic glibness masquerading as some sort of generational truth.

Darling Companion. More than 20 years ago, director Lawrence Kasdan made a terrific ensemble film called Grand Canyon that was, in part, about how people struggle through their midlife crises. Kasdan's latest returned to that same terrain, bringing together a great cast (including Dianne Wiest and Richard Jenkins) but stranding them in a horribly cutesy comedy about a married couple (Kevin Kline and Diane Keaton) whose hunt for their missing dog becomes A Metaphor For Their Strained Relationship. Getting old ain't for sissies, but does it have to be this smug?

This Means War. What's most frustrating about This Means War is that it actually has a decent idea at its core: Best bud CIA agents (Chris Pine and Tom Hardy) discover they both like the same gal (Reese Witherspoon) and use their spy skills against one another to win her heart. But what could have been a sharp screwball comedy instead gets reduced to an over-amped action-comedy in which everybody is encouraged to be as conniving and juvenile as possible. Plus, Witherspoon totally ends up with the wrong guy.

Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie. Hey, I liked Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! But Heidecker and Wareheim's particular brand of anti-comedy was like nails on a chalkboard when pumped up to feature length. I realize that hating Billion Dollar Movie this much is sorta playing into their hands: I'm the uptight prude who doesn't "get it." But that doesn't mean I'm wrong.

What to Expect When You're Expecting. If nothing else, What to Expect When You're Expecting inspired this piece, which is one of my favorite things I wrote this year. But that still doesn't forgive a movie this incredibly shrill and clueless about the complexities of relationships, family, love, life, being a human, you name it. I expect this type of garbage from Jennifer Lopez, but Chris Rock? How could you?

The pictorial will appear in the January issue of the magazine's Brazilian edition, but there is no word on whether it will appear in the U.S. version of the mag as well.

Migliorini was scheduled to lose her "V-card" between Nov. 15-20 with the help of a Japanese man named "Natsu," who won the rights via the Internet auction.

That deal hasn't been consummated, according to Frank Thorne. Thorne is a spokesman for Justin Sisely, the Australian filmmaker who masterminded the "cherry popping heard around the world" for a proposed documentary, said that the planned deflowering hasn't taken place.

"Things changed a lot as the documentary progressed. Other things are still in the works," Thorne told The Huffington Post. "For now, the project is on hold and as everyone is now closing down for Christmas, we are in limbo until the New Year. Can't say anything more at the moment, but there is nothing to report at the moment."

Migliorini had been living in Bali, pending the granting of a visa into Australia, where Sisely is located. In order to get the film completed in a timely manner, Sisely had planned for the sex between Migliorini and "Natsu" to take place on a plane from Bali to the US. This was also to avoid any type of prostitution prosecution in Indonesia, Sisely explained.

Now that Migliorini's visa issues are resolved, the devirginizing documentary will be filmed in Australia, and Sisely is confident the consummation can take place without any more snags.

"Due to Catarina's third visa attempt being granted to Australia, we changed our proposed plans of where the consummation would take place," he told HuffPost by email. "I am confident with Australian legislation which is why the auction and consummation is concluding in Australia."

If this happens, it will be in spite of efforts by Brazil’s attorney general, Joao Pedro de Saboia Bandeira de Mello Filho, who ordered an "urgent investigation," to look into the auction, which he equated to "people trafficking."

Regarding the Playboy pictorial, Thorne said that Migliorini arranged the deal with the magazine herself and Sisely was not involved.

When she first announced that she was going to sell her virginity online, she suggested that she would donate at least some of the proceeds to charity, a public statement that shocked Sisely.

"I was surprised she said that because in all my dealings with her, she made it clear that it was a business decision for her," Australian filmmaker Justin Sisely told HuffPost exclusively back in October. "Now, given how big this story is in Brazil, she's trapped. If she doesn't give any money to charity, she's going to look bad."

Migliorini has made no promises to donate any of her Playboy paycheck to the less fortunate.

"It causes a lot of problems in religious circles," Lyster told HuffPost back in October. The list of skeptics now includes people originally part of the project, such as Australian sexologist Elaine George, who interviewed Alex Stepanov, a male virgin also participating in the Internet auction (his virtue only netted $3,000).

"Unfortunately I think the whole thing is a sham," George told HuffPost. "I only met the male once and he appeared to have a lot of social anxiety. I did not feel comfortable with the project and think it is exploitation."

* I think the only person getting exploited here is Natsu. If Migliorini is indeed a virgin, it's going to be unpleasant experience for Natsu. Plenty of 'ouch-y' moans. She insisting on certain position to minimize contact. And wearing a condom......that takes half the fun of it.

Call us anything you'd like. However, never ever call us sexually unadventurous.

Even our Governor. Governor Rick Scott gave out the state’s information hot line for a deadly meningitis outbreak last October. It turned out to be a hot hot hotline: Scott was one digit off, providing the state's citizen's an opportunity to hear the low purr of a woman’s voice offering to talk dirty. We often go where no man -- or woman -- goes, sexually speaking.

Multiple lovers can lead to confusion.Port St. Lucie: Olive oil during sex rubbed woman the wrongGirlfriend asked her lover to get the olive oil from the kitchen to use as a "sexual lubricant" — and then also asked him if he had brought the PAM.Bad karma: Pam happened to be the name of his secret lover.

Il Omaggio - A Tribute to Tinto Brass

Al Nusra front, or Al Qaeda Levant, aka FSA or Free Syrian Army in the western media, one of the main militia groups sponsored by NATO and fighting the Syrian state have been caught in an orgy sex scandal in Idleb province by the Syrian Army, a scandal that is supposed to be too much of a shame for the 'Islamist Jihadist' group supposedly fighting to implement a strict fanatic version of Islam in the areas it infests.

Al Nusra Front terrorists in Syria

20 of Al Nusra Front terrorists in a group led by a Saudi Abu Ahmad Tamimi were caught red-handed in an orgy sex act in a big hall by a Syrian Army unit during an operation the latter was carrying out in the city of Idleb. The army unit managed to take several pictures of the porno show for the records. The terrorist group of 20 arrested composed of 15 non-Syrians including their commander Tamimi who is a Saudi citizen of 40 years old, and among the girls were 20 Syrians, mostly wives of 'holy fighters' and a Saudi lady pimp.

Some of the ladies confessed during interrogations they were forced by blackmailing and by pressure to join the orgy while others considered themselves 'serving the revolution' and would enter the heavens for that from its widest gates..

Al Nusra terrorist groups are very active in Idleb due to the support through the borders they get from Turkish Islamist fanatic Prime minister Erdogan, who dreams of being called a Sultan or a Muslim Caliph.

Erdogan, Turkish Islamist Prime Minister will do anything to become a Caliph

Worth mentioning that once the news were spread of the arrests, clashes occurred between different armed groups from these terrorist rings resulted in at least 10 deaths, scores wounded and some other groups are trying to mediate between the warring factions to get over it as they don't need more fractions among the 'Jihadists' fighting the Syrian state.

A Syrian activist commenting on the news asked: 'Shouldn't the Syrian authorities stone the whole group till death then their bodies buried at sea, according to the Sharia law version they want to impose on Syrians?'

- The above information were posted by real Syrian activists from Syria and around the world, not by western intelligent post offices duped activists.

4. "Ice Age: Continental Drift": $875 million

One of the biggest shockers to make the top of the list is the fourth installment of Ray Romano's mammoth-sized animated film. Though the film took in $161 million domestically (the least of any in the franchise), the film performed excellent overseas earning an additional $714 million.(Box Office Mojo)

25. "Mirror Mirror"

There was only room for one "Snow White" film this summer. Julia Roberts' lighthearted take on the fairytale tanked at the box office when it earned $18 million of its estimated $85 million budget opening weekend. The Relativity movie was expected to debut between $22 and $24 million opening weekend.

Though the film ended up earning $166.2 million worldwide, domestically "Mirror Mirror" brought in $64.9 million.

23. "Fun Size"

If Nickelodeon needed a wake-up call to show it has little idea of its current demographic, look no further than "Fun Size," an attempt at a younger version of "Super Bad" for pre-teens.This movie may have worked in 2010, when the network's ratings were up due to hits including "iCarly" and "Victorious" – the latter featuring one of the stars of "Fun Size." However, with re-runs often playing, the novelty has worn off, and with it, the ratings of the network have also slid.

22. "Premium Rush"

Joseph Gordon-Levitt had a great run with movies this year between "The Dark Knight Rises," "Looper," and, now, "Lincoln." However, the Batman actor couldn't go four for four with Sony's "Speed"-like bicycle film.

21. "Part of Me"

Katy Perry's break out film performed nowhere near as well as other singer documentaries. Justin Bieber's "Never Say Never" earned $29.5 million while the Jonas Brother's "3D Concert Experience" grossed $12.5 million opening weekend. Bieber's film went on to earn near $100 million worldwide.

The problem with Perry's movie; however, may not have been the film itself, and, rather, it's crowded release date. The same weekend, "Part of Me" competed with "Ted," "Magic Mike," and "The Amazing Spider-Man."

20. "Atlas Shrugged II: The Strike"

If you never heard of "Atlas Shrugged II," the sequel to the 2011 film (yes, there was a first one) you weren't the only one. The film, based on Ayn Rand's novel, was poorly marketed and often became confused with Tom Hanks' "Cloud Atlas" since the two came out within weeks of each other. The film quickly dropped out of nearly 1,000 theaters by week three.

18. "Chasing Mavericks"

2012 has not been a good year for Gerard Butler. In less than two months he has had two box-office busts. The first was this surfing film. After two weeks in theaters, "Mavericks" was pulled out of more than 1,500 theaters. Only left in less than 70 theaters, the film won't earn back an estimated $14 million.

12. "Total Recall"

Despite the buzz and viral marketing, both audiences and critics didn't approve of Len Wiseman's remake of Arnold Schwarzenegger's '90s sci-fi thriller. No one ever seemed prepared for a reimagining of the cult classic, and the film was never expected to do better than $25 million in its debut.

10. "Rise of the Guardians"

One of the biggest surprises of the film year was the movie on which DreamWorks Animation bet most of its fourth quarter earnings. "Rise of the Guardians." The company's stock dropped nearly five percent the Monday following the film's severe underperformance. Like the success of animated movies before it ("How to Train Your Dragon" and the "Shrek" franchise), the cartoon featuring holiday mascots was expected to earn near $60 million.

Our best guess for the film's performance deals not with the weekend in which it debuted, but rather, the movie material. The audience demo for a film about the Easter Bunny and Santa was roughly young elementary school boys who were already past the faze of knowing Santa was anything but real. Younger boys who may have had an interest in the film may have been deterred by parents who found the situation material too dark and violent for 5, 6, and 7 year olds.

We don't have it up higher on our list because with no other holiday films out, the film should make up for some of its losses through the end of the year.

8. "Dark Shadows"

Though audiences were enchanted with Johnny Depp's portrayal of wacky characters in "Alice in Wonderland" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," his take on the gothic soap opera of the late '60s missed its mark at theaters. "Dark Shadows" was thought to make well north of $35 million, and, at best $50 million.

4. "Dredd 3D"

The tale of "Dredd" is an interesting one. Anyone who saw the reboot, loved the film. Reviews for the film were greatly positive. The problem with this movie – other than targeting fans of the comics – was Lionsgate's marketing along with poor word of mouth. Since the film was primarily advertised as 3D, it wasn't clear to audience's "Dredd" was readily available in the less expensive 2D as well.

3. "Cloud Atlas"

Big actors do not mean big bucks at theaters. Though visually aesthetic, the film adaptation may have been too complicated for viewers to understand. The film comprised of Tom Hanks and Halle Berry, among others, playing multiple roles across six different stories from the past and future.

1. "John Carter"

Disney expected Andrew Stanton, director of "Finding Nemo" and "WALL-E," to deliver another box-office winner; however, the alien film never had a chance. Poor marketing and changing the film's title from "John Carter of Mars" spelled disaster for the Mouse House.

Miss World 2003 Rosanna Davison, daughter of singer Chris De Burgh, chatted with Brian O'Connell of The Irish Times about her year in which she posed nude for Playboy.

Davison was featured on the cover of German Playboy earlier this year, an opportunity she said she took “control” of and angled to display women in a powerful manner with the Amazonian theme she chose.

“I decided to do it based on my academic understanding of women’s writing and literature and the fact that I haven’t made a career out of glamour modelling or taking my clothes off.” Davison is a graduate of University College Dublin, where she studied sociology and art history.

"I came up with the idea of a tribal beach theme, and I wanted to look both strong and feminine. I wouldn’t have done it if they said, ‘Lie back on a bed with silk and satin lingerie.’ I wanted to look strong and fit and toned and healthy.”

O’Connell asked if Davison felt her posing in Playboy adds to the objectification of women.

"I agree it adds to the objectification of women,” she said. “There are no two ways about it. Every other aspect of modern society, though, from advertising to reality shows, also fuels that. It seems one big cyclical objectification.”

“I wouldn’t have done the shoot if I were not in control of the whole thing, from the location to the hair and make-up and the final shots. It was all down to me. There were 100 shots taken, and I picked 40 and I told them what to airbrush and what not to. What I was trying to put across is that you can be everything. You can be desirable and sexy and in control.”

Davison went on to clarify her stance on feminism after O’Connell asked her if she felt she was used as the “token counter-feminist” when she was slotted to appear on The Late Late Show in September alongside Caitlin Moran, the London Times columnist and author.

“I am a big admirer of Caitlin’s work and read her column every week,” Davison said. “I would relate to a lot of what she writes about. There is no way I was ever going to disagree with what she was saying. I would see myself as a great supporter of women and someone who would absolutely stand up for women. I don’t know if I would use the term feminist. I don’t know if it is applicable any more.”

Aside from appearing in Playboy this year and for being crowned Miss World in 2003, Davison is also known as daughter of the famous musician Chris de Burgh, who wrote and sang the song ‘Lady in Red.’

With her name being in the public arena, Davison has taken to working with some charities. However, earlier this year, she was the focus of some controversy when she ran the Flora Women’s Mini Marathon.

When Davison clocked 43 minutes for a 10K, speculation soon grew that she might have began the race at a later start point than the rest of the competitors. Davison has rejected such accusation, and later explained that her final time was due to her having used another runner’s race number and only collected it after starting the race. She said her time was over an hour, not 43 minutes.

Davison ran the marathon to help benefit Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. She added that, “I did the Ironman Challenge in September in Galway for Irish Autism Action – we won the women’s relay section – and I will continue to work with the ISPCA next year.”

Speaking on her heightened public profile, Davison said, “Well, I won’t be picking my nose walking down the street,” she said with a laugh.

“I run around in my gym gear a lot, so I am not overly concerned. One of the nice things about Irish people is that they don’t bother you really. I am nowhere near the level of celebrity status as someone from, say, Hollywood coming in. If I’m out at two in the morning I get Lady in Red in my ear, but that’s about it.”